Xenotransplantation makes a comeback

A newly announced genome-editing experiment—the largest documented to date—is the latest in a series of advances reinvigorating the field of xenotransplantation. In October, Harvard University geneticist George Church and colleagues at Boston-based startup eGenesis described the use of CRISPR-Cas9 to disrupt all 62 genomic copies of porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) in cultured pig kidney epithelial cells. That feat, which dwarfs the greatest number of simultaneous DNA changes ever recorded using genome editing, removes one potential hurdle facing use of pig xenotransplants in human patients—zoonosis. But eGenesis is not the only company actively exploring the commercial prospects of xenotransplantation… Read more at Nature Biotechniques.